What Could American-Style Gun Culture Do to Israel?

An Armed, Internally Divided Nation Is Not One That Makes Peace Easily

mong the core Israeli national narratives fractured by the October 7 Hamas terror attacks and the months of war and violence that have followed was the notion that Israel’s ethos on firearms differed from that of the United States.

Both countries were gun-centric democracies, that narrative allowed, but the U.S. was a land of too many guns and too few laws—while Israelis “trust their state, and don’t fear each other.”  A common refrain emphasized that “in Israel it is not a right to bear arms, but a privilege.”

I knew this mentality …

When the Black Panthers Lobbied For ‘Open Carry’ Laws

In 1967, Two Dozen Black Radical Activists Entered California's State Capitol With Unloaded Shotguns

In 1966, it was legal to openly carry loaded firearms in the state of California—a legacy of the Gold Rush. In Jackson, a Sierra foothills town that retained the flavor …

How the NRA Made Florida the “Gunshine State”

Decades Before the Orlando Shooting, Lobbyists in the State Helped Redefine Americans’ Constitutional Right to Bear Arms

Ever since the brutal mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando in the early morning hours on June 12, Florida has become the focus of nationwide concerns about easy …